Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Did you know...That one of the best ways to increase love of Allah in our heart is to ponder over His favors upon us.

If you find it difficult, just consider the below statistics.

If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes
on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep … you are richer than 75% of
this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare
change in a dish someplace … you are the top 8% of the world’s
wealthy.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness …, you
are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.

If
you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment,
the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation … you are ahead of 500 million
people in the world.

If you can pray in mosque without fear of
harassment, arrest, torture, or death … you are more blessed than three billion
people in the world.

If your parents are still alive and still
married … you are very rare.

If you hold up your head with a smile on
your face and are truly thankful … you are blessed because the majority can,
most do not.

If you can read this message … you just receive a double
blessing in that some one was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more
blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at
all.

“ then which of the blessings of your Lord will you both (jinns
and men) deny?” Quran (55:13)

Thanking Allah for His blessings:

“And [remember] when your Lord proclaimed, ‘If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favor]…” (Qur’an, 14:7)

“Remember Allah during times of ease and He will remember you during times of difficulty” (Tirmidhi)

Thanking is recognizing and appreciating. The more you thank, the more you will see. The more you see how Allah has blessed you, you see His presence in your life and this in itself should create a certain soothing of the heart.

By thanking Allah, you are recognizing He is al-Wahhab (the Giver of gifts), ar-Razzaq (the Sustainer), al-Wadud (the Most Loving) and insha’Allah (God willingly) you will be able to recognize how He manifests His attributes and Names in your life.

Take the time out every evening to thank Allah for the blessings in your day – not only will you be overwhelmed because you will never be able to enumerate them, but you will truly recognize Allah’s presence in your life and you will start loving Him.

You hear these
ayahs during every Jumah Khutbah and Marraige sermon and they are important.
Read more for details, but the
meaning of these ayahs, as
explained by Shaikh Husain Abdul-Sattar, is if one is honest, truthful and
clear in speech- Allah will reform their deeds
(straighten their deeds in another translation) and forgive them and
grant them success. Essentially, what this means is if one is honest, Allah will change a person so they no longer commit sins and their deeds are of a
better nature. In other words, through the Barakah (blessedness) of speaking truthful
words, Allah SWT Himself will make you into a better human being, which is what
the goal of spiritual struggle and all the dhikr and ibadah we perform is!!

Therefore,it is important to always speak the truth, especially when it is
hard to do so, and in doing so, Allah SWT will help us in our tazkiya and
spiritual development. This represents a CORE teaching in our religion!

What is the meaning of the word: 'qawlan sadeeda'?سَدِيدًاis from Sadd: seen-daal-daal (س د
د), which literally means wall, that has no space in it, or gaps or holes.
Qawlan Sadeeda is speech
that has no ambiguity, it is clear, it is straight–like the
wall, having no holes or gaps. ‘Tasdeedus Sahm‘ is a phrase which means
to throw the arrow straight on the mark, when it reaches the bulls-eye; the
arrow doesn’t go right or left. So sadeed refers to a speech that is to the
point, clear, doesn’t go right or left–not mixed with exaggeration.

Qawlan
Sadeeda gives a vast meaning:1- a statement that is true.2- a statement
that is proper and appropriate. It is possible you may say a 100% true statement
but it’s not appropriate.Say that which is in accordance to reality, it is not reduced, increased and
it is accurate.

يُصْلِحْ لَكُمْ أَعْمَالَكُمْ He
will reform your deeds. What does this mean? It means that Allah azza wa
jal will accept your deeds.وَيَغْفِرْ لَكُمْ ذُنُوبَكُمْ
And He will forgive your sins; Allah will cover and
forgive your past sins, your future sins and those you do due to
forgetfulness.وَمَنْ يُطِعِ اللَّهَ وَرَسُولَهُAnd
whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger:فَقَدْ فَازَ فَوْزًا عَظِيمًا Then
indeed he has attained the greatest success. Meaning he has attained his
ultimate goal.
May Allah azza wa jal make us among those who say qawlan sadeeda and those
who acheive the greatest success, Ameen.

Here are different ways to understand honesty, truthfulness and what qawlan
sadeeda implies in our daily lives:

-honesty in thinking to bring about good thinking
-honesty in advice with
sincerity
-honesty with your soul with islamic beliefs
-honesty with
others in not being a hypocrite
-honesty in questions means good
answers
-honesty in honoring a contract or covenant
-truthfulness in
reciting the book of Allah- the truest words of all
-truthfulness in using
the book of Allah for dawah and not using your own words
-truthfulness in
saying dhikr, because dhikr is the most true thing
-truthfulness in saying
kalimah which takes you to Jannah, just as all truthful words lead to somewhere,
while lies are a dead-end
-truthfulness in your lifestyle and how you live to
be true to the truth as a testimony to the veracity of the truth you live
upon
-truthfulness being related to words of wisdom, Sunnah and Quran with
accuracy
-truthfulness as being worried about your truthfulness as a sign of
your being true to the truth
-truthfulness in being true not just to the
words you are about to say, but the whether those words are true and fitting to
the time, place, appropriateness, and to whom you are saying (think of ‘nasiha’-
giving spiritual counsel advice)
-truthfulness in saying what is always
best
-lying as a harm to others
-lying as a confusion
-lying as a
distortion
-lying as a fib, inaccuracy, blurring
-lying as an
equivocation
-lying as not speaking a truth earlier
-straightforward
speech in being direct and clear
-straightforward speech in people
understanding what you meant

-honesty is therefore a “process of being” because this has not just to do
with the tongue but the mental tongue as well, the language is of supreme
importance in all the social sciences and this is because it is tied to
cognition and thinking and more importantly to all types of “transformational
change.”

-when one hears a foreign language, it is like seeing the outside
architecture of a building, the sharpness and the softness, the speed and
narrowness, the perceived intent, all from a lack of understanding of the nature
of the language, but yet it tells us something, but when a person speaks that
language it is as if they have entered that building and their familiarity with
the inner design (etymology, word choice, patterns, ) is governed by their
intellectual honesty- hence from here, they may see the sun setting when in fact
it is rising because they have convinced themselves…language is like the needle
of a compass while honesty is the field telling you which way is north.

"And present to them the example of the
life of this world, [its being] like rain which We send down from the sky, and
the vegetation of the earth mingles with it and [then] it becomes dry remnants,
scattered by the winds. And Allah is ever, over all things, Perfect in
Ability.

Wealth and children are [but] adornment
of the worldly life. But the enduring good deeds are better to your Lord for
reward and better for [one's] hope." [surah Al Kahf, 18:45&46]

Tafseer from Bayan ul Quran by Shaikh Ashraf Ali Thanwi [RA]:

And clarify for these people the state of the worldly life. It is as though We have brought down rain from the sky, then through it the vegetation of the earth has become nice and dense then having dried up after being green and lush; it becomes like chaff such that the wind is blowing with it.

Such is the state of the dunya. Today it seems to be flourishing and thriving. Ultimately, there won’t even be any trace or any mention left of it, and Allah Most High has full control over everything; whenever He wishes he brings into existence and causes to thrive. When he wishes, He destroys.

Since this is the state of the world itself and wealth and children are an adornment for (and subordinate to) the worldly life, then the demise of wealth and children will be even more swift, and the righteous deeds which will endure forever and ever, they (the righteous deeds) according to your Lord (in the Afterlife) are infinitely better than this world in terms of reward, and infinitely better in terms of expectation also.

Summary:

That is to say, expectations based on righteous deeds in the Afterlife will reach fruition and still much more will be given in reward. Contrary to worldly possessions which even in this world fall short of expectations and in the Afterlife do not even hold possibility of fulfillment. For this reason it is not befitting for one to be prideful of the Dunya or to hold it close to his heart. Instead, one must strive and make effort for the Afterlife.